1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to interior illumination assemblies for adjustably illuminating the interior of a compartment such as an elevator passenger cab.
2. Description Of The Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 AND 1.98
It is known for screw-in type replaceable LED lamps to be used in lamp housings such as track lighting housings as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,850,126 issued Dec. 15, 1998; and United States Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0242461 A1 filed Oct. 30, 2006. However, existing LED lamp designs are generally adapted to retrofit such LED lamps into lamp housings designed to accept standard screw-in type incandescent lamps.
It is also known for polarizing filters to be used to control the amount of light emitted from a light source. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,879 issued 10 Nov. 1992 to McDermott, discloses a handheld flashlight having stationary and rotatable polarizing filters coaxially supported in and oriented across the paths of light beams emittable from an array of LEDs and/or an incandescent bulb carried by a lamp module of a cartridge assembly of the flashlight such that, when the LEDs and/or bulb are energized, their emitted light must pass through both filters before exiting the flashlight case. The stationary filter is fixed relative to a flashlight case. The flashlight case houses the cartridge assembly and supports the cartridge assembly for rotation within the case. The rotatable filter caps the lamp module such that rotation of the cartridge assembly with its lamp module within the flashlight case causes rotation of the rotatable filter relative to the stationary filter between conditions of parallel polarization (high projected light intensity) and cross-polarization (low projected light intensity). The luminous intensity of a light beam emitted from the lamp of the flashlight is adjustable by rotating the rotatable polarizing filter relative to the stationary polarizing filter. However, the McDermott flashlight isn't adapted for mounting above a ceiling panel of a room or compartment such as, for example, an elevator passenger compartment and, even if it were, it would not allow an operator to rotate the polarizing filters relative to one another without also rotating the lamp module relative to the flashlight case.